Oldies On An AM Station - Can It Get Enough Listeners/Advertisers to Survive?

[DavidEduardo]

I was going by the last Arbitrons I saw several months ago.

What I gave you is a 2012 rolling average... the station is just outside top 10 in 12+, but around 20th in 25-54. Granted, local accounts don't buy numbers, but the numbers show if there are enough listeners to generate business for an advertiser.

[musiconradio.com]

If you were talking about a "true" Oldies format ('50s and early '60s), it might work.  Most of that music was recorded in mono and would sound fine on AM radio.

Huh?

On the other hand, listerners would probably not tune in to mono AM to hear late '60s-'70s music that was recorded in stereo and has be played on FM radio in stereo.

So that's why they are not listening to AM. Mystery solved.

[Silkie]

I was going by the last Arbitrons I saw several months ago.

What I gave you is a 2012 rolling average... the station is just outside top 10 in 12+, but around 20th in 25-54. Granted, local accounts don't buy numbers, but the numbers show if there are enough listeners to generate business for an advertiser.

I am outside of the 25-54 demographic.  I listen to the station. They have plenty of advertisers that I have heard.  And...sometimes some people make their businesses a labor of love.

[TheFonz]

If you were talking about a "true" Oldies format ('50s and early '60s), it might work.  Most of that music was recorded in mono and would sound fine on AM radio.

Huh?

On the other hand, listerners would probably not tune in to mono AM to hear late '60s-'70s music that was recorded in stereo and has be played on FM radio in stereo.

So that's why they are not listening to AM. Mystery solved.

No, they're not listening because nobody programs "true" Oldies anymore.  It's that 55+ thing.  But not to worry...........that's what satellite radio and internet radio are for.  And soon today's '60s-'70s music fans will be listening to satellite and internet radio as well.  Commercial music radio is dead.

[DavidEduardo]

I am outside of the 25-54 demographic.  I listen to the station. They have plenty of advertisers that I have heard.  And...sometimes some people make their businesses a labor of love.

I can take a station with low ratings... meaning fewer listeners... and sell the spots for 10% of the rate of a leading station... or 5%... and sell lots of spots.

The fact that a station has advertisers means nothing until you know how much each pays for its spots.

With WMID, let's say I charge 10% of what WAYV does, and give plenty of night and weekend free bonus spots... I can bill perhaps 15% of what that leader bills, and maybe even make a small profit. That is a good thing for a "graveyard channel" AM in today's radio environment. It's also an example of how a non-competitive AM signal can survive by picking a format with some appeal that an FM would never touch.

[DavidEduardo]

Commercial music radio is dead.

No, it's not dead.

The best operators are adding new media brand extensions. Smaller market stations are giving services not available on the internet along with the music.

Revenue crashed due to the recession... off over 30% in some markets. But the industry is approaching a recovery to 2008 levels in many markets.

Use of radio is very high... on the order of 94% of all people in the PPM markets. The amount of time spent listening is somewhat reduced, but we have to factor in all the entertainment options from gaming to video on demand.

There is a lot of life left in radio... including music radio. It's likely that towers and transmitters will not be the distribution channel of the future, but "radio" will continue to distribute content for quite a long time.

[michael hagerty]

If the 45's were pitched up with energy driven DJ's and some awesome jingle package I would be a fan 

Leave the pitch as nature intended.  If you want your music "pitched up," listen to the Chipmunks.

Most of the Top 40's of the late 60's and earlier 70s' pitched up the music; that's how we first heard it. I find stations that don't recognize this fact sound somewhat draggy.

The other side of that coin:  stations that "pitch up" the music sound too "chipmunky" for me.

You've been listening to FM too long
KTNQ was known to pitch up their records in the late 70's and that didn't hurt ratings against pwerhouse KHJ? Rich Brother Robin, Bill Lee, Jack Armstrong, etc.  All those high energy jocks pitched up the 45's. I think your overstating the pitch. You would have to go above 2% before the record would sound over pitched IMO.

I know I'm about 6 weeks late to this thread, but KTNQ came in third in a 3-way AM Top 40 race (KHJ, KTNQ and KFI).

I doubt that pitching the records was the deciding factor (though KTNQ ran very fast because KHJ was subtly pitching their music from 1974 until John Sebastian arrived in January of 1978 and KTNQ had to juice it even more), but it is worth noting that the ultimate winner, KFI, played 45s at 45. And the real winner, KMET, which went to 3rd while the AMs battled to stay in the top 10, played their 33 and 1/3rds at 33 and 1/3.

Also, the jocks didn't pitch the records...the PD did. And Bill Lee was brilliant, but was never at KTNQ, or in Los Angeles, for that matter. He and Armstrong worked together at KFRC, San Francisco (which didn't pitch its music) in the early 80s.

[firepoint525]

There is a small AM station near me, here in the county where I live.  They are jockless at night, but apparently stay on the air overnight to stream oldies over the internet.  If it weren't for netcasting, there would probably be no need for them to stay on the air past sunset (save for Friday night high school football, etc.), because their night signal is so weak that I doubt that I could pick them up here.

The drawback:  their music is not really focused.  It is just a hodgepodge of stuff from the '50s, '60s, and '70s.  Maybe some more recent stuff, too.